The Grammys have been in slow decline for years now, especially after this year’s grim airing of the award show. For years people have speculated that the award show is fixed, or shows some form of favoritism to certain artists and genres. The ongoing feud between the Recording Academy and former President and CEO, Deborah Dugan, who was put on leave just 10 days before Music’s Biggest Night, has confirmed these speculations, and has cast a dark cloud over the award show.
The cloud then thickened with the news of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, deaths in a helicopter crash, just hours before the show was set to air. Many artists paid their tributes throughout the show, as they should, but there was no mention at all of the crisis regarding the academy award and its voting process that crowned so many artists in the audience that night winners.
After being suspended, Dugan retaliated by filing a 44 page complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EOCC), alleging intense sexism, racism, and harassment, within the “boys club” organization, as well as voting irregularities, financial mismanagement, self dealing and conflicts of interest among the board and nomination committee. Dugan also claims that her predecessor Neil Portnow, who has made misogynistic comments about female recording artists, raped a female artist.
Since she became CEO, Dugan had begun establishing herself as someone who wanted to make the Grammys more inclusive and representative of the music industry. Variety reported that before she was ousted, Dugan had begun reaching out to artists who had felt “alienated or underrepresented by the Grammys in recent years.”
In an interview with the LA Times, Dugan explained that amongst the current contenders for song of the year, one nominee who she has not disclosed, placed 18 out of 20 during the nominations, but was still bumped to the top 8. The artist sat on the nomination committee, and is also represented by a member of the academy’s board. She says it favoritism like this that has caused artists in the past to miss out on nominations. This blantant favoritism, often times leaves African American musicians unacknowledged for their work.
Artists such as Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and other artists were absent from this year’s awards ceremony. After being honored at the Pre-Grammy Gala, Sean “Diddy” Combs, took the stage to talk about the Grammys, stating that “Hip-Hop has never been respected by the Grammys. Black Music has never been respected by the Grammys to the point that it should be.” He points out that this institutional racism, by the organization whose mission statement is to protect the welfare of the musical community, is not a revelation and occurs not only in music, but sports, films, and other forms of entertainment and art. He then challenged the Grammys to make changes within the next year, and before the 2021 Grammy Awards.
“We need the artists to take back the control. We need transparency. We need diversity.” said Combs.
The underrepresentation is especially prevalent amongst artists who are bending genres, and executing their own unique styles, such as rapper/producer/singer Tyler, the Creator. Tyler, who gave a literally earth shaking performance, won Best Rap Album for “Igor,” even though it holds more to the pop standards than that of rap. Although he expressed his gratitude on stage for receiving recognition for his work, he later that night called the Grammys out on its inability to properly acknowledge the work of black artists in an interview.
“On one side, I’m very grateful that what I made could be acknowledged in a world like this,” he said in response to being asked about the controversies. “But also, it sucks that whenever we– and I mean guys that look like me– do anything that’s genre bending or that’s anything they put it in a ‘rap’ or ‘urban’ category, which is… I don’t like that ‘urban’ word. That’s just a politically correct way to say the N-word to me. When I hear that I think why can’t we just be put into pop?'”
Tyler points out that the crossing of genres is a one way street, where white artists can cross over into “urban” formats, but it’s much harder for black artists to crossover into non-urban categories. Take Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” which he considers to be Country Rap. Upon its release the track charted the Billboard’s Country Hot Songs, and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, but was then removed from the country charts for “not embracing enough element’s of today’s country music,” even though it was receiving numerous plays on country stations.
Rolling Stone writer Elias Leight pointed out in an article that Lil Nas X isn’t the first African American to have trouble crossing over into other genres. Beyoncé reportedly tried to submit the song “Daddy Lessons,” of her album Lemonade, to the Grammy committee as a Country song only to be turned down. Juice Wrld’s Death Race For Love, could have been “the most commercially successful rock album of 2019,” said Leight, but it will never appear on rock charts, a genre predominantly dominated by white artists.
It’s time for the Grammys to rethink the way they give out their awards. How can not only the Recording Academy, but the entire music industry be more inclusive to not only the hip-hop community, but black artists who are genre bending?
Before her leave, Dugan presented a report by a diversity task force whose findings lead to the recommendation of critical change within the Recording Academy. The task force suggestions included that the academy publicly report its demographics, implement ranked-choice voting in the “Big-Four” categories, and that their workplace policies be reviewed by an outside firm.
Before the ceremony began, the Academy proposed new diversity initiatives. Hiring a diversity and inclusion officer, examination of how it does meeting diversity initiatives over the next 120 days, and donating to women in music organizations are included so far. Change has to begin somewhere, and time will only tell if these will help to implement the needed change within this organization.
“We’ve got a lot to change,” said Alicia Keys as she closed the show. “We’ve got a lot to do. Keep speaking the truth. Peace and Love.”
It’s going to be a long fight for change, but as of right now, Dugan’s fight is at risk of being played out in secret. She recently sent a letter to the Executive Committee of the Academy’s board asking to be released from an arbitration agreement that requires any legal proceedings to be kept confidential. “The public and the music industry have the right to know what is going on behind closed doors at the Academy.” writes Dugan.
If the Academy is smart, they’ll release Dugan. The world and the music industry need to see a messy dissection of the Recording Academy and its practices. Dugan’s fight is one that goes beyond the music industry and the Recording Academy, and complete transparency of the process is needed in order to begin implementing change that is long overdue. As consumers of music and entertainment, it is up to us to stay informed in order to help protect the art and work of those we admire so much in the industry regardless of sex or gender.